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Everybody needs a goal...

I've always heard — at least for computer stuff — that it is better to go ahead and have a project that requires you to learn something new than it is to try and "study" something to learn it.

Like Nike says, just do it.

But so far trying to learn how to play guitar I've followed the books and studied. So after a few weeks I can bang through a single verse of "On Top of Old Smokey". Not a very satisfying song, by the way.

So now I'm doing something different.

During a chance conversation with a fellow ex-Durhamite we talked about playing guitar and mentioned Jimi Hendrix's version of The Star Spangled Banner. I decided that would be a lot cooler to learn than some old folk song, and the song itself (but not how Hendrix played it) isn't terribly fast and is picked rather than chorded. That idea stuck with me, and I decided to make that the next song I worked on — instead of "Little Brown Jug".

Lots of people have written guitar tabulature for Hendrix's The Star Spangled Banner, but after looking around a bit I have decided to use Dead Joker's version. It is a little simplified and is generally an adaptation of the regular song, instead of a transcription of Hendrix's performance at Woodstock, like the very detailed tab from Rick H.

So my goal now is to learn The Star Spangled Banner before July 4, so I can get on someone's porch, turn up the volume and crank away.

Wish me luck — but if all else fails, I can at least play the very end.

Hoo Rah!